Fried Noodle Cake with Hoisin Vegetables -- Random Recipe #8

Doesn't this look yummy?  I really lucked out with this week's Random Recipe!  My randomly selected cookbook was Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks #198, Stir-Fries Cookbook from August 1997. 

I've had this book for many years and have never cooked anything from it.  My randomly selected recipe was...

Twice-Cooked Noodles with Hoisin Pork.  Since I don't eat pork I swapped out the pork and added extra veggies (the same amount of veggies by weight as was called for with the pork).  The recipe also includes "purchased stir fry sauce" and I made my own.  I grew up eating stir fries all the time and I don't remember ever buying a sauce. This one called for garlic ginger stir-fry sauce, so here is a quick and easy home made version, you can just up the ingredients if you want a bigger batch of sauce and vary the spices to taste, I usually add some Chinese Five Spice powder but kept this one simple since it was to go with the hoisin sauce...

Quick and Easy Homemade Stir Fry Sauce

double if desired, this makes enough for one small stir-fry

1/2 cup vegetable broth

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (or minced garlic)

1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger (or minced fresh ginger)

1 tbsp cornstarch

Whisk together all ingredients thoroughly, add to cooked vegetables in hot wok and stir for 30 sec - 1 minute until thickened and glossy. To use it in this recipe just whisk it all together and add it in when the recipe says to add stir fry sauce to the wok.

Twice-Cooked Noodles with Hoisin Vegetables

adapted from Pillsbury Stir-Fries Cookbook

8 ounces uncooked fresh Chinese noodles or angel hair pasta, broken into 2 inch pieces (I used a 10 ounce package of lo-mein noodles)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 tablespoons peanut oil (I used vegetable oil)

1 and 1/4 pounds mixed fresh vegetables, cut into like sized pieces -- I used 1 red pepper, about 6 mushrooms, about a cup of broccoli florets, and 1 small zucchini

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup stir fry sauce (see recipe above)

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

Cook noodles as directed on package. Drain well. In large bowl, combine cooked noodles, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the peanut or vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet or work over medium0high heat until hot.

Add noodle mixture, pressing to form pancake, cook 8 to 12 minutes or until bottom of noodle pancake is

golden brown.

Slide pancake from skillet onto plate (this is a little tricky); invert pancake onto another plate, browned side up. Add another 1 tablespoon oil into skillet or wok. Slide the noodle pancake into skillet, browned side up; cook 4 to 6 minutes or until bottom is browned. Slide onto serving plate, cover to keep warm.

In same skillet or work, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil until hot, add veggies and stir to coat.

 Add water and cook 6 to 8 minutes until veggies are crisp tender,stirring occasionally. Stir in stir fry sauce and hoisin sauce. Cook 1 to 2 minutes until thoroughly heated and sauce has thickened and is glossy.

To serve, with sharp knife or kitchen scissors, cut hot noodle pancake into wedges. Top pancake with vegetable mixture.

~~~~~

This was probably my favorite Random Recipe so far! It was such a delicious lunch even though it was a bit tricky to get the noodle pancake just right. One of my very favorite things at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants is called Pan Fried Golden Noodle and it is pretty much this recipe! It is not on a lot of Chinese restaurant menus and I'd never tried to make it at home because I never thought I'd be able to find the right type of noodle but the lo mein noodles I tried were very similar to the restaurant noodles.  I will be making this one again for sure, some crunchy tofu would be perfect with this.  Although it is a bit time consuming for lunch, it was worth it :)

I'm sending this off to Sue for Cookbook Sundays and also to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast for Presto Pasta Nights #258.